It was a couple of great underdog wins for us last night as the Toronto Maple Leafs, despite a horrible bounce to tie the game with 15 seconds left, won in overtime as a road underdog on Long Island, while the substantial home underdog Washington Capitals won their last game before the All-Star break over the tough Boston Bruins. There is only one more game to go before the All-Star break arrives, as the Detroit Red Wings meet the Montreal Canadiens for the only time this season. While we have nothing to bet on within the NHL for the next few days you can head over to this NBA Predictions site and lay down a few NBA wagers – that’s what I’ll be doing.
NHL Pick for January 25th
Detroit @ Montreal
The Red Wings are arguably the NHL’s best team right now as no matter what happens tonight, they will enter the All-Star break with the overall lead in the NHL standings. The wings have sizzled at home lately winning 17 straight at their Joe Louis Arena, however the Wings are just .500 on the road this season at 13-13-0. This game will feature two of the best goalies the NHL has to offer. Jimmy Howard has been everything the Wings had hoped for this season as he leads the league in victories with 30 on the year and has a .926 save percentage to go along with a 1.95 goals against average for the season. He also has 5 shutouts to his credit, is 8-2 in his last 10 games, and is 4-0-0 with a 1.20 goals against average and a .950 save percentage over his last 4 games played. At the other end of the ice will be Carey Price, who has been a lone bright spot for the Habs this season. Despite a 16-17-8 record, Price has maintained a respectable 2.41 goals against average and a solid save percentage of .914. The reason for Price’s shotty record is his teammates cannot find the back of the net consistently. Montreal has scored just 123 goals on the season so far, which ranks 22nd in the NHL. Furthermore, their average goals for per game of just 2.6 ranks 19th in the NHL, and they aren’t much better at home averaging just 2.8 goals per game at the Bell Centre which is just 18th in the league. Besides great goaltending, this game also features a Detroit road powerplay who has actually struggled to go along with a Montreal powerplay that has struggled all over the place this year. Detroit is just clicking at 15.9% clip on their road powerplay which is ranked 18th in the league, while Montreal’s anemic home powerplay ranks 27th in the NHL at just a 12.5% success rate. Montreal’s top players simply cannot get the job done this season. Brian Gionta was unproductive and is now possibly on the sidelines for the rest of the season, Scott Gomez has once again been invisible, and Tomas Plekanec has just 2 points in his last 8 games. With such great goaltending, a less dynamic road offense for the Wings, and a poor Montreal offense in general leads me to believe this one could be a low-scoring affair. The Red Wings average 3.2 goals for per game on the year, but that number slips to 2.6 per game on the road. Detroit also boats the league’s 5th ranked overall defense, allowing just 2.2 goals per game. The UNDER is 5-0 in Detroit’s last 5 games overall, and is 6-3 in Detroit’s last 9 games on the road. Meanwhile, the UNDER is 6-2 in Montreal’s last 8 games, and 4-1 in Montreal’s last 5 home games. Lastly, the UNDER is 6-1 in Detroit’s last 7 games vs. the Habs and is 5-2 in their last 7 games at the Bell Centre. Take UNDER the total tonight in our last NHL action before a well deserved break.
My Pick – UNDER 5.5 (-140) (bet it at www.5dimes.com and get $520 FREE)